The piety of politicians versus security of the country

Pakistan is at war but its all-powerful prime minister, Mian Nawaz Sharif, is nowhere around. Last Sunday (July 27) he flew off to Saudi Arabia where he and his family will spend the last days of Ramazan in prayer, contemplation and long vigils at Islam's holiest places. Such piety, though undoubtedly soul-enriching, is nevertheless supererogatory and not a religious obligation. One hopes that the prime minister has travelled to the holy land at his own cost and the expenditure will not be defrayed from the national exchequer.
This brings to mind events in the country last year. Nawaz Sharif was sworn in for an unprecedented third prime ministerial term on June 05, 2013 amid hopes that this would be the curtain raiser for enduring peace, stability and self-sustaining economic growth. But it took him less than five weeks to spark a political crisis.
On a petition submitted by the PML-N (Pakistan Muslim League-N) leadership, the Supreme Court advanced the presidential election from August 06, 2013 to July 30, 2013. The ruling party had pleaded that the original date coincided with the 27th of Ramazan, and furthermore many parliamentarians would have gone into religious retreat in the final ten days of the holy month.
The reaction of the political opposition was stern. The PPP announced it would boycott the election since it had not been given a hearing in violation of the principle of audi alteram partem. It also had reservations about the admissibility of the petition on the ground that the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court was confined under Article 184(3) to the enforcement of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution.
Senator Raza Rabbani declared angrily: "When we do not accept the election process, it means we will not accept the president." He then advanced the harebrained explanation that this would "save the federation" and strengthen democracy by ensuring electoral propriety.
A variation of this theme has been adopted by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf  (PTI) leader, Imran Khan, who is determined to lead a million-man march to Islamabad on August 14. In the process he has accused all and sundry, including former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, of being complicit in rigging the May 2013 elections.
But at the time of last year's constitutional crisis triggered by the revised presidential election date, Imran Khan was relatively subdued. He was frantically running hither and thither to save himself from possible imprisonment and a five-year ban from politics on contempt charges for bad-mouthing the judiciary.
When hauled before a three-member Supreme Court bench on August 28, 2013 he vehemently denied that he had ever accused the judiciary of involvement in election fraud and pleaded: "I only referred to the returning officers and never named the Supreme Court or the superior judiciary." Despite this, ten months later at a mass rally in Bahawalpur he demanded information on ex-chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry's role in manipulating the election results.
Imran Khan could never have imagined that he would become the victim of the same 'tsunami' that he keeps threatening to unleash on the country. On Thursday the former chief justice served him a Rs20 billion defamation notice which stated: "I may withdraw my claim if you willingly tender an unconditional apology" within 14 days.
The PTI chief is not the lone warrior who has vowed to demolish the ramparts of corruption and build a reformed society from its rubble. The same deafening cacophony saturated in phrases of absurd rhetoric, is also the hallmark of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek leader, Tahirul Qadri. Presumably his promised revolution against corruption has been put on hold till he responds to the notices for tax evasion of Rs770 million that were sent to him by the Federal Bureau of Revenue on July 11.
However Khan and Qadri, much as they savour power and glory, have never held positions of authority, and, to this extent they can be forgiven for their puerile outbursts. But no such excuse is available to Nawaz Sharif. He has learnt nothing from the past.
When he eventually emerges from his spiritual retreat his foremost priority will be the massive celebrations that have been chalked up for Independence Day in order to neutralise Imran Khan's million-man march. Utterly remote from his mind is the war raging in North Waziristan where our soldiers are fighting in the sweltering heat of a summer Ramazan for the survival of the country.
What the prime minister does not realise is that the actual war against terrorism will not be fought in the tribal regions but on the streets of the major cities. The last few weeks should have been spent in sprucing up and streamlining coordination among the 33 national security organisations whose cumulative strength exceeds 600,000 and is more than that of the Pakistan Army.
This is the time for rapid intelligence-based pre-emptive strikes against scores of terrorist sleeper cells entrenched in the country's urban centres. The ongoing military offensive in North Waziristan has severely degraded the (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan)  TTP/Al-Qaeda command and control structure as a result of which the terrorist groups are particularly vulnerable. But unfortunately the prime minister is more concerned with the salvation of his soul than with the security of the country.
The Independence Day rallies and demonstrations that have been lined up are hugely expensive. None of the political leaders have thought it worth their while to spend the funds instead on the internally displaced persons (IDPs), who, through no fault of their own, have become refugees in their own country.
They would have stood tall and earned the respect of ordinary people had they dedicated this year's August 14 celebrations to the IDPs. But this is asking for the moon. Only a few of these self-centred men (there are no women at the helm) have ever bothered to visit the refugees in their camps.
The decision to launch Operation Zarb-e-Azb against terrorist-infested North Waziristan was not taken on the spur of the moment. It must have been brainstormed and planned in advance especially if the ISPR statement that the military offensive was launched "on the directions of the government" is to be believed. The tragedy of Pakistan is that thinking is alien to the mental makeup of its leaders.
Had this not been a fact, the massive influx if IDPs would have been anticipated and adequate arrangements put in place. A PML-N insider told me that the government had expected about 100,000 refugees, but the actual number had soared beyond the one-million mark.
At a press briefing on Tuesday (July 22), the States and Frontier Regions minister admitted that the government had failed to galvanise public support for the refugees. He then warned that the number of IDPs could increase to 2.2 million with the intensification of the conflict.
But a majority of the displaced persons are not from North Waziristan and this was explained in a recent article by former World Bank vice-president, Shahid Javed Burki. He recalled that the 1998 census showed the population of North Waziristan to be 361,246. Even if the growth rate had been three per cent per annum, the population of the agency in 2014 should be no more than 560,000. He then concluded somewhat callously: "This additional influx must be from other tribal agencies... They are getting free food and rudimentary healthcare. Even the quality of shelter may not be worse than what they have left behind."
The PML-N government has effortlessly generated bitterness and hatred against itself among the refugees. The central information secretary of the PTI, Shireen Mazari has been at pains to point out that a few days back an IDP jirga refused to meet the prime minister and instead called on Imran Khan.
But the anger against the ruling party is not confined to the refugees and has spread to all segments of society. The latest countrywide opinion survey indicates that the approval rating of Nawaz Sharif and his party has plummeted to an all time low. Only 17 per cent of the respondents still support the PML-N compared to 33 per cent who prefer the PTI, and, amazingly 19 per cent favoured the PPP (Pakistan Peoples Party). It is impossible to foretell what the coming days and weeks will bring.
The writer is the publisher of Islamabad-based Criterion Quarterly.  iftimurshed@gmail.com